The purpose of this page is to write a brief story about how your family commemorates ANZAC day and why ANZAC day is significant to you.
Instructions:
1. Rename the page and save it as My ANZAC Story - your name.
2. Think about how your family has commemorated ANZAC day and your families ANZAC History. Did any of your relative serve in the previous conflicts or wars? Plan out your ANZAC Story. Consider the 6 core questions - What, When, Who, Where, Why and How as starting points for your story.
What do you do to commemorate ANZAC day?
Who of your relatives were involved, where and when?
Why is it important to you and your family?
My Family and I celebrate ANZAC day by going to watch the ANZAC day Parade at the Torrens Parade grounds. We love watching the ANZAC survivors march and thoroughly enjoy the ANZAC spirit, which is demonstrated by soldiers in the march as well as their families. We commemorate ANZAC day by going to the dawn service, by wearing the red poppy, which a symbol of remembrance and also by making a batch of ANZAC cookies. When discussing ANZAC day with my sister, she told that me that her class made red poppies at school and one of the year seven students played the last post on the trumpet. Both my parents also wore poppies to work. On ANZAC day, my family and I often go out for lunch or dinner and spend the day together as a family. ANZAC day is important to my family as it helps us to commemorate the soldiers who died in the war. It helps us to remember the courage that the ANZAC’s showed and the great sacrifice they made for Australia. I do not have any relatives who were ANZAC’s, as my family comes from India but there were allies from the British Indian Empire who fought alongside Australia in this war. Commemorating these soldiers is important to my family, as my Grandpa knew several of the Indian allies who fought in this war. This year on ANZAC day, my Grandpa as well as group of other Indian ex-servicemen were asked to march in ANZAC day parade at Torrens Parade grounds, on behalf of the British Indian allies.
INDIAN EX-SERVICEMEN ON ANZAC DAY
My ANZAC Story
My Grandfather’s name is Rajender Kumar Bhatia and he was 24 years old when he joined the army. He took part in the Indo Pakistan War in 1971 when he was 31 years old. His title and service number was Major MR2221 and he was a part of the 415 Medical Battalion. The war began on the 3rd of the December and finished on the 16th of December 1971. My Grandfather was in the Western Sector of the war and was stationed 3km away from Wagha Border. He received 9 medals during his time in the army.
MY GRANDFATHER IN FULL ARMY UNIFORM WITH HIS WIFE AND SISTER
After interviewing my Grandfather, I was able to find the following information:
In 1971, Pakistan was made up of two parts, East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and West Pakistan. The population of East Pakistan was Bengalese and wanted to be independent from West Pakistan, which had a mostly Muslim population. The reason that a war occurred is because West Pakistan did not want East Pakistan to be a separate company and they tried to suppress them by killing anyone who supported this idea. East Pakistan asked for help from the Indian army to fight the war. India was happy to support Mukti Bhaini (An Indian word for a country that wants to liberate themselves from another country) in this war but had an ulterior motive. They wanted Pakistan to become two separate countries so that they would have weaker forces than the India. The Pakistani soldiers took a sea route to East Pakistan and attacked there. India though that the Pakistani soldiers might start attacking at the Western front called Atari border and decided to have an army ready there as well. This is where my Grandfather was. The Indian soldiers went to East Pakistan in civil dress (normal Indian clothing) as a disguise and managed to capture 90,000 Pakistani soldiers.
MAP OF INDIA, PAKISTAN (West Pakistan) AND BANGLADESH (East Pakistan).
My Grandfather’s main role was to provide medical health care and surgical treatment to the wounded soldiers in the 54 Infantry Brigade and attached troops. There were 60,000 people in this brigade. My Grandfather also had to evacuate the casualties from their location in the war to the field hospital or to the nearest military hospital in Amritsar after necessary treatment. In the war, my Grandpa’s first patient was a captured Pakistani soldier who had a gun shot wound in his right leg. He was treated, given first aid and necessary resuscitation and then was evacuated to Amritsar where he was put in a Prisoner of War Camp.
During the war, my Grandpa went for a round to check that all the military vehicles were parked away 200 yards away from each other, so that if an artillery shell hit one of the vehicles, not all of them would be destroyed. When going for his round he saw all five drivers sitting around a fire and making tea while the shelling was happening and all the vehicles were in one place. He was extremely angry with them for disobeying his orders and told him to quickly park their vehicles at distances from each and to get into the trenches so that they are protected from the shelling. A couple of minutes later, a shell land exactly where those drives were making tea and impact was a four feet deep crater. If my Grandfather had not reached there in time, all five of the drivers would have died and all five vehicles would have been destroyed. The drivers learnt their lesson from this and never disobeyed orders again.
LAYOUT OF MY GRANDFATHER"S BUNKERS.
PROTECTIVE LAYERS ON TOP OF BUNKER:
The artillery regiment was very close to my Grandfather’s bunker during the war. The artillery regiment would fire in a particular area and then change locations ever so often. This was because if you fired from a particular area for some time, the enemy can tell where the gunfire is coming from. Since the artillery regiment was so close to my Grandfather’s bunker, he could hear the shells exploding all around. He was very frightened that a shell might hit the unit. Luckily none of the shells hit my Grandpa’s bunker, however his hearing was affected. REGIMENT LOCATIONS NEAR MY GRANDFATHER's BUNKERS
A MAJOR SHOWING MY GRANDPA A MODEL OF THE BATTLE FIELD (My Grandpa is standing next to the major who is explaining the model)
MY GRANDFATHER DISCUSSING PLANS - My Grandpa is furthest to the right. (you can see a prebuilt bunker in the background).
SOLDIERS COMING HOME AFTER THE WAR
REFLECTING ON MY ANZAC PROJECT:
This task has changed how I think about ANZAC day in several ways. I have realised the importance of the ANZACs to Australians and understand why they are remembered and resected. The soldiers left their home and family to go and fight for their country. Many of these soldiers were volunteers and they made a great sacrifice for Australia. I have learnt about the difficulties that the soldiers faced and how they showed courage, mateship, sacrifice and endurance.
By reading the ANZAC stories of my fellow students, I have learnt about several of the different roles in the war. Some of these include being a fighting soldier in the army, a pilot or bomber in the air force, soldiers in the navy or a doctor or nurse.
This project helped me to find and gather information from a primary source (my Grandpa). When gathering my information, I had to ask several specific questions so that I could get an understanding of the context of the war and also my Grandpa’s role in the war. I also loved listening to my Grandpa’s stories and experiences and it gave me a snapshot of what it might have been like to experience war and also how it would feel to be in this situation.
My ANZAC Story - VatsalaB
Purpose:
The purpose of this page is to write a brief story about how your family commemorates ANZAC day and why ANZAC day is significant to you.Instructions:
1. Rename the page and save it as My ANZAC Story - your name.2. Think about how your family has commemorated ANZAC day and your families ANZAC History. Did any of your relative serve in the previous conflicts or wars? Plan out your ANZAC Story. Consider the 6 core questions - What, When, Who, Where, Why and How as starting points for your story.
My Family and I celebrate ANZAC day by going to watch the ANZAC day Parade at the Torrens Parade grounds. We love watching the ANZAC survivors march and thoroughly enjoy the ANZAC spirit, which is demonstrated by soldiers in the march as well as their families. We commemorate ANZAC day by going to the dawn service, by wearing the red poppy, which a symbol of remembrance and also by making a batch of ANZAC cookies. When discussing ANZAC day with my sister, she told that me that her class made red poppies at school and one of the year seven students played the last post on the trumpet. Both my parents also wore poppies to work. On ANZAC day, my family and I often go out for lunch or dinner and spend the day together as a family. ANZAC day is important to my family as it helps us to commemorate the soldiers who died in the war. It helps us to remember the courage that the ANZAC’s showed and the great sacrifice they made for Australia. I do not have any relatives who were ANZAC’s, as my family comes from India but there were allies from the British Indian Empire who fought alongside Australia in this war. Commemorating these soldiers is important to my family, as my Grandpa knew several of the Indian allies who fought in this war. This year on ANZAC day, my Grandpa as well as group of other Indian ex-servicemen were asked to march in ANZAC day parade at Torrens Parade grounds, on behalf of the British Indian allies.
INDIAN EX-SERVICEMEN ON ANZAC DAYMy ANZAC Story
My Grandfather’s name is Rajender Kumar Bhatia and he was 24 years old when he joined the army. He took part in the Indo Pakistan War in 1971 when he was 31 years old. His title and service number was Major MR2221 and he was a part of the 415 Medical Battalion. The war began on the 3rd of the December and finished on the 16th of December 1971. My Grandfather was in the Western Sector of the war and was stationed 3km away from Wagha Border. He received 9 medals during his time in the army.
MY GRANDFATHER IN FULL ARMY UNIFORM WITH HIS WIFE AND SISTER
After interviewing my Grandfather, I was able to find the following information:
In 1971, Pakistan was made up of two parts, East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and West Pakistan. The population of East Pakistan was Bengalese and wanted to be independent from West Pakistan, which had a mostly Muslim population. The reason that a war occurred is because West Pakistan did not want East Pakistan to be a separate company and they tried to suppress them by killing anyone who supported this idea. East Pakistan asked for help from the Indian army to fight the war. India was happy to support Mukti Bhaini (An Indian word for a country that wants to liberate themselves from another country) in this war but had an ulterior motive. They wanted Pakistan to become two separate countries so that they would have weaker forces than the India. The Pakistani soldiers took a sea route to East Pakistan and attacked there. India though that the Pakistani soldiers might start attacking at the Western front called Atari border and decided to have an army ready there as well. This is where my Grandfather was. The Indian soldiers went to East Pakistan in civil dress (normal Indian clothing) as a disguise and managed to capture 90,000 Pakistani soldiers.
MAP OF INDIA, PAKISTAN (West Pakistan) AND BANGLADESH (East Pakistan).
My Grandfather’s main role was to provide medical health care and surgical treatment to the wounded soldiers in the 54 Infantry Brigade and attached troops. There were 60,000 people in this brigade. My Grandfather also had to evacuate the casualties from their location in the war to the field hospital or to the nearest military hospital in Amritsar after necessary treatment. In the war, my Grandpa’s first patient was a captured Pakistani soldier who had a gun shot wound in his right leg. He was treated, given first aid and necessary resuscitation and then was evacuated to Amritsar where he was put in a Prisoner of War Camp.
During the war, my Grandpa went for a round to check that all the military vehicles were parked away 200 yards away from each other, so that if an artillery shell hit one of the vehicles, not all of them would be destroyed. When going for his round he saw all five drivers sitting around a fire and making tea while the shelling was happening and all the vehicles were in one place. He was extremely angry with them for disobeying his orders and told him to quickly park their vehicles at distances from each and to get into the trenches so that they are protected from the shelling. A couple of minutes later, a shell land exactly where those drives were making tea and impact was a four feet deep crater. If my Grandfather had not reached there in time, all five of the drivers would have died and all five vehicles would have been destroyed. The drivers learnt their lesson from this and never disobeyed orders again.
LAYOUT OF MY GRANDFATHER"S BUNKERS.
PROTECTIVE LAYERS ON TOP OF BUNKER:
The artillery regiment was very close to my Grandfather’s bunker during the war. The artillery regiment would fire in a particular area and then change locations ever so often. This was because if you fired from a particular area for some time, the enemy can tell where the gunfire is coming from. Since the artillery regiment was so close to my Grandfather’s bunker, he could hear the shells exploding all around. He was very frightened that a shell might hit the unit. Luckily none of the shells hit my Grandpa’s bunker, however his hearing was affected.
REGIMENT LOCATIONS NEAR MY GRANDFATHER's BUNKERS
A MAJOR SHOWING MY GRANDPA A MODEL OF THE BATTLE FIELD
(My Grandpa is standing next to the major who is explaining the model)
MY GRANDFATHER DISCUSSING PLANS - My Grandpa is furthest to the right.
(you can see a prebuilt bunker in the background).
SOLDIERS COMING HOME AFTER THE WAR
REFLECTING ON MY ANZAC PROJECT:
This task has changed how I think about ANZAC day in several ways. I have realised the importance of the ANZACs to Australians and understand why they are remembered and resected. The soldiers left their home and family to go and fight for their country. Many of these soldiers were volunteers and they made a great sacrifice for Australia. I have learnt about the difficulties that the soldiers faced and how they showed courage, mateship, sacrifice and endurance.
By reading the ANZAC stories of my fellow students, I have learnt about several of the different roles in the war. Some of these include being a fighting soldier in the army, a pilot or bomber in the air force, soldiers in the navy or a doctor or nurse.
This project helped me to find and gather information from a primary source (my Grandpa). When gathering my information, I had to ask several specific questions so that I could get an understanding of the context of the war and also my Grandpa’s role in the war. I also loved listening to my Grandpa’s stories and experiences and it gave me a snapshot of what it might have been like to experience war and also how it would feel to be in this situation.
References
ANZAC Image -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coloured_illustration_of_Anzac_troops_after_the_fighting_at_Gallipoli_during_World_War_I_%281%29.jpg
About the Australian War Memorial 2015, Australian War Memorial, accessed 18 May 2015, <https://www.awm.gov.au/>
ANZAC day 2015, Australian Government, accessed 19 May 2015, <http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/anzac-day>.
Bhatia A 2015,pers comm., 10 May
Bhatia, R 2015, pers. comm., 10 May.
Bhatia V 2015, pers comm., 10 May
Bhatia A 2015,pers comm., 10 May
The Ode 2015, Australian War Memorial, accessed 19 May 2015, <http://www.army.gov.au/Our-history/Traditions/The-Ode>.